New Season = New Home Improvment Projects

With the hope of Spring right outside our door, the promise of home improvement projects aren’t far behind!

I don’t know about you, but once that sun starts shining and the birds are singing, my mind turns to project mode and  starts plotting all the things I want to do to our home and yard.  It’s exciting!  I really could be an interior designer, landscaper and  gardener and be totally happy for the rest of my days!  Maybe I should look into that….ANYWAY….Since this is our 2nd summer in our new house, it’s time to get to work!

Last year we really were getting settled, learning about our home and yard and now is the time to do all those little  things that can be improved upon.  We were lucky enough to move into a home that didn’t need major home remodeling.  The previous owners had just installed replacement windows, paint on the inside was fresh and the outside was manicured and nice.  The  vinyl siding looks ok, but I would LOVE to change the color someday.  It doesn’t have to be now, but sometime.

As you may have remembered, I’ve been on a Home Organization kick since the end of last summer.  I haven’t posted on it in a while, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working on it.  I have lots to show you and will do so soon!

This weekend is the first really nice weekend of the year and I’m dying to do something…anything that includes getting ready for Spring! Maybe I’ll plant some bulbs, hang a new bird feeder or even tackle painting the living room. (get ready honey…the season of painting and home improvement projects is coming!!)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend…you may or may not hear from me.  I may be too busy enjoying the outdoors with my family to come inside!

What’s your home remodeling plans for the season?  Any fun outside projects going on at your house?

This post includes text links to a company that has compensated me to do so. But, as always, the post is totally my own content and my own words.

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Day 3: Project Home Organization

Well, on to day 3 of my home organization.

I normally shop for 2 weeks of groceries and only run back to the store for staples such as bread, milk and eggs in-between trips.  Well, that’s the plan anyways.  Sometimes I decide I don’t want whatever I’ve planned for a meal or have a craving for something sweet, so I allot  for those trips as well.

This week when I brought home my groceries, I just knew it was time to clean out the pantry!  I didn’t have room for any of the new items and the shelves were overflowing and I had no idea what was in there.  I do straighten it all the time, but I don’t get in there and pull everything out and take inventory of what I have.  Boy, did I have a lot of stuff I didn’t know about!

6 bags of egg noodles, 3 boxes of elbow macaroni, 2 half empty bags of flower, 2 bottles of canola oil ( I don’t even use this!), numerous packets of taco seasoning, an overflowing recycle bin and lots and lots more!

I whipped it all out and started fresh.  I did not go out and buy anything to help make organizing easier or more efficient. Later on I’ll tackle the expense of nice bins for cereal, crackers, pasta and such and the Mabel’s Labels Household Labels. But not today!  Just good old fashioned elbow grease and organization skills.

Since I tackled the pantry, it just made sense to organize the spice cabinet as well.

Much better!  I feel like a new women.  I don’t know about you, but when things are neat and orderly, I feel much more calm and clear AND  I know where things are and what I have.

Next project:  Entry Way!

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Day 2: Project Home Organization

There is absolutely no rhythm or reason to when I decide to organize an area of my home that is driving me crazy. I usually just jump in and go at it!  I have planned to take my life back from the clutter and disorganization of  all the nooks and crannys, drawers and cabinets, home office stuff and kid’s crafts and school papers.  I just have to do it!  I am so unorganized and it’s driving me crazy. We’ve been living  in our new home for almost a year.  Time to get with it!

My first project was to organize my 3 year old’s crafty stuff.   I’m happy to report that it is STILL organized and my system is working brilliantly.  My new desk and computers (2) YES, two computers have arrived and are being organized in stages.  I’ll be sure to update you on those as soon as they are presentable.

Today I took on my laundry closet.  Yes, I have a laundry closet in the kitchen.  That was one thing I gave up when I moved here, a laundry room.  Well, all of my laundry rooms have consisted of a room in the cold, damp basement, but hey…it was a room!  OH well!  It is really nice and I did get the AWESOME HE Machines (which I am telling you is the best investment EVER!  Run out and buy some today!)  to fill my closet with.

I also filled my closet with tons of stuff!  Dirty clothes that were brought in from outside when kids were playing, file boxes with important papers (hence the need for a new home office set-up), bathing suits, blankets, towels, dog toys and grooming tools, and all the stuff needed to do laundry, of course!

I didn’t know I was going to tackle this little project as I was starting laundry today, so  I didn’t get a before shot.  Sorry!

Here is the new and improved, organized laundry area!

Wooo…I feel much better!

Project Home Organization

Kids craft area
Laundry area
Home Office
Craft & school papers
Entry hall & closet
Pantry
ENTIRE HOME

Looks like I have a little more work ahead of me.  I’ll keep you posted!

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Keeping Organized AND Green

If you’re like me, you have a never ending to-do list that seems to be growing by the minute daily.  And if you’re like me, you have it scribbled down on a million pieces of paper around the house, on the fridge, in your purse and on your desk.

What? You don’t?  You’re more organized than me?  NO way!

Well, for those of you that aren’t already organized, try an electronic to-do list.  There’s a million ways to do this too..but a couple of examples would be creating a list in your Word program and adding to it daily or actually using a program such as Google Calendar to organize your life. With Google Calendar you can:

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Day 1: Project Home Organization

It’s Day 1 of my home organization project. I’m finally ready to get on with organizing all the things in my life that are driving me crazy.  It seems that most days, being a mom and daycare provider, takes all the time I have to just get through the day.  Tasks such as organizing a closet, a desk, a drawer or even my paperwork, gets pushed aside.  I’m sure most of you can relate to that being a mom and taking care of the kids always comes before the “extras”.  Organizing is not something that I want to put on the back burner, it just happens.

I’m not the most organized person in the world, but I want to be and I felt like now was a great time to get started.   I’ve always looked forward to the 1st day of school, even when I was not in school or had kids in school.   There’s just something about it that gives me a sense of new beginning and renewal.  And so, I have decided that now that I am a mom of a preschooler and have a tiny bit of free time each week, I’m going to tackle organizing my family, my home and my life. In my quest for finding the best tips on accomplishing this,  I’ve visited several blogs that I would consider “pros” in this area and will be using some of their tips on becoming a more efficient, productive and organized mom and I’ll share this information with you as I go along!

Today I started with my 1st project: Organize my daughter’s craft supplies.

My daughter, Ella,  LOVES to color, paint, cut, sticker, draw, and do puzzles and spends most of her free time doing so.  It’s the first thing she does in the morning and the last thing she does at night.  We didn’t have a designated area for all of her supplies and she normally works at our island on her projects.  Ideally, this was not the best set up.  Her stuff would be scattered and cluttered and she would always loose things since we only had them in a basket on the counter.  I knew I needed something to keep it all in, but didn’t know what.   Here’s what I came up with:

1.  Preschool Desk from Pottery Barn Kids.

(I was going to link you up to this, but they must have sold out since I ordered it last week.)

This is an adorable little child-sized desk and the kids all love it.  I actually think my 15 month old need his very own.  He spends alot of time sitting here as well.  As cute as it is, it’s not very practical for keeping Ella’s supplies in order.  The two drawers are narrow and not very long – just enough room for  some pens and pencils and maybe some other little items.  So, I came up with another storage solution.

2. 4-shelf Organizer Cube

I picked this up at Michael’s but also saw one at Target.  This was a snap to put together and holds all of Ella’s construction paper, drawing paper, notebooks, coloring books and marker and crayon holders.  I even placed some of her scissors and stickers in closed containers on top of the cube. For now, it sits on the island in the kitchen so that the little kids don’t make confetti out of the contents.  My plan is to sit Ella’s desk beside my desk (that will be delivered this weekend) and place the cube on my desk for her to use.  I also have another modular storage system on order that we’ll put together later.

But  this is a good start.  It doesn’t look like much, but I feel a ton better AND more productive since I got this all organized today.  I’m also going to be working on a great tip from Simple Mom for all of Ella’s completed artwork. She has some great ideas to storing and displaying all those special pieces that I’d like to save but not have it just cluttered into a drawer or taped all over the house like it currently is.

I’ll keep you updated every step of the way on my Project: Home Organization.  In the meantime, send me your tips and tricks that you use to keep your child’s projects and hobbies in order.  I’d love to see pictures as well.  I’ll post them right here!

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Project Home Office: HELP!

Since I’ve become much more active on my computer now that I’m blogging, doing finances, checking email, and shopping researching, I really need a much better way of organizing my work space.  Here’s what I have…

And here’s what I’d like to have….

Pottery Barn Office System with a sleek, new laptop.  Well,  what I would  really like to have is  a brand new laptop to take around the house and on the road with me AND  a new desktop for my nice new desk.

Here’s the space I have to put a new desk into….

This is the family room area off of my kitchen.  See that big cabinet in the corner?  That’s my area that I work in.  Yes, it’s an okay setup, but it’s really not functional.  I have paperwork, bills and  files everywhere because I don’t have one place to keep it all.  I have it in plastic bags, in drawers, on shelves and stuffed into about every possible place you can imagine.  I’m always late on bills and misplace important documents all the time.  I TRY to be  organized, but when you don’t have ONE dedicated place to keep everything, inevitably it gets lost.

So, my goal is to purchase a new desk system and computer in the near future with a  no-fail organizational system for my life.  Sounds easy, huh?  Well, not for me. I need your help!  I need your best tips to make my home office (or corner) more functional and organized.   I’d love to see photos of your home office space and  to hear about what computer you use and why you love it!

Send me your best tips, tricks and photos and I’ll feature them right here!  Then, when the time comes and I break my husband down buy a new set-up and get organized, you’ll be the first to know!  I’ll publish all the best advice right here and share it with you all!

Make sure to leave me your tips below AND email me your photos at kasey at allthingsmamma dot com

Well, what are you waiting for???  Get snappin’!

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Update on Kitchen Painting

Well, painting the kitchen turned into painting the family room as well.  They are both connected and I figured we might as well hit them both at the same time.  My poor husband stayed up late into the night last night putting a first coat on the kitchen and the entire first half of today putting the first coat on the family room.  I don’t think he even had a meal before he left for work.

All the furniture in the family room is pushed to the center of the room and all of the pictures are off the walls and on the floor.  I spent most of the day and evening playing defense with Andrew to keep his fingers out of electrical sockets, turning off the power strip switch to the computer and carrying off the 16×20 family picture.  Man, boys are soooo much more into things than girls!  Ella would sit for hours and watch TV or play with a toy.  Not my bub.  He’s into every single thing he can find.   He just goes from room to room to room and pulls and pushes things and grabs and throws and sticks EVERYTHING into his mouth.   I tell him “NO” in my sternest voice and he gives me his sweetest smile and then laughs and runs off to get into something else.  Geez, I love him!  LOL!

On to the 2nd coat in the family room tomorrow…I can’t handle this family room all messed up and Andrew the tornado!  LOL!

I missed my Aquacize class today because of all the painting and I can really tell.  I felt blah today.  I’m getting there tomorrow even if I have to take all the kids.  They’ll be alright in the baby pool, right? It is fenced in.

(Just kidding..don’t send me a ton of comments on how unsafe it is to leave a small child in a pool all alone and what a bad mom I am for even thinking about it.  I’m not that crazy!  LOL!)

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Removing Wallpaper…UGHHH!!

Well, for some reason I decided to start peeling down wallpaper today in my kitchen.  I’m exhausted and still not finished!

When we moved in, about 9 months ago, everything had been freshly painted.   Nothing HAD to be painted and still doesn’t, but I’m ready to put my own touches on it.  I’m not a primitive, folksy, apple kinda gal.  I would say I’m more of  a Pottery Barn, TJ Maxx, flea market, yard sale kinda gal.  : )

I guess we’re starting in the kitchen since I started pulling the border off and  realized that they painted one shade darker above the border and a shade lighter below.  I JUST NOW NOTICED!  It was so subtle, you couldn’t even tell until the border came down.  Well, now it has to be painted.  And guess what color I’m painting it…green!  LOL!  Well, it is a completely different shade of green – Fresh Olive to be exact.

The way our family room and kitchen flow together, I think I’m going to go ahead and paint them both the same color so that it looks like one big room instead of two rooms like the previous owners had it.

OH….so many choices and so little money!  I’ll keep you updated with photos as I go along.  Hopefully, we’ll finish up over the weekend.  Wish me luck!  : )

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